“…They were super happy to
be finally done with all the documentation and now they are set to get married and
baptized in about three weeks.”
Dear family
Our Pday was moved to Tuesday this week because of Heroes' Day, a
national holiday here in Mozambique. I'm glad Sister Hobson offered to email you guys so
you wouldn't worry about me. The Hobson's attend church at T3, so I was talking
to her and mentioned how P-day was moved to Tuesday because of the holiday.
Then she offered to email you so you wouldn't get worried. She emailed the
other parents of the elders here in T3. She obviously knows what it's like to
be in your guys' shoes. Yeah, I
guess this holiday is kind of a big one here; but I didn't
see any celebrations, at least not in this part of town, maybe because it rained the night before. But it wasn't raining during the day, so that was good for
us; so yesterday we had a normal day of work. It didn't feel like any day out
of the ordinary, except it was weird to go from Sunday to another normal day
instead of P-day
This past week was pretty good. The zone conference was
really great. I'm sure you saw the pictures on President Kretly's blog with all
the missionaries in Beira and Maputo. I think my face is partly covered in the
picture haha. It was actually a relatively short zone conference. It was over
by 3pm, usually they go until the evening. So afterwards, we were still able to
go teach lessons and do contacting. Elder Hamilton gave a really good training.
He is in the Africa area presidency, and lives in Johannesburg, so he visits
the missions of Africa very often.
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He says that Africa right now is by far the fastest
growing area in the church and is ground zero for the spreading of the gospel
right now. He said that in comparison with the rest of the world, there really
aren't many missionaries serving in Africa, and we're really lucky to have the
opportunity and privilege to be serving here at this time. I really do feel lucky to be serving in
Mozambique.
The mission has the goal to create 8 new branches by
the middle of the year, and divide the 2 districts by the end of the year, in
preparation for the creation of 4 stakes. I honestly don't know if I'll be here
to see the creation of the first stake, but either way it is really cool to be
here at this time when we are making a strong push to grow and strengthen the
branches here.
Elder Hamilton asked us to list all the challenges and
issues we face as missionaries in Mozambique. Then he went through the list and
gave his thoughts on how we can deal with these issues. It was really an
effective training because he tailored it to our needs as missionaries instead
of bringing something pre-prepared. It's similar with us teaching lessons. We
have to tailor it to the needs of our investigators instead of sharing something
rehearsed. I learned a lot from what he shared with us.
On Friday, we went to the Civil Register in Matola to
submit the documents for marriage for Alfredo and Laura. They were the ones
that went in to the register and did the paperwork, but we accompanied them, in
case they had any questions or needed any help. They were super happy to be
finally done with all the documentation and now they are set to get married and
baptized in about three weeks. I'm really excited for them too! We'll continue
to work with them to make sure everything will go well on their wedding and
baptism day. They will be a really strong addition to our branch.
There is also another family, Gerson and Candida that
will be getting married and baptized the following week, on the 1st of March. So it will be nice to see two families married
and baptized in the next few weeks. We have other families we are working with
to get them to that point. We're trying hard to set baptismal dates and get
them started with the document work. We're also trying harder to work with
members to accompany us to lessons. I'm excited for this upcoming week, it
should be pretty good.
That is true what you said about the experience I'm
having here in Africa compared to other missions. I think being away from a
bunch of stuff for these two years will make me appreciate everything back home
a lot more and I won't take it for granted.
Dad, thank you for bearing your testimony on Sunday, I'm
sure it was a beautiful testimony, like Mom said. It's great that you guys all
feel very close while I am away and that the Lord is keeping you safe at all times. Before you know it, we'll all be together as a
family again. But these two short years are a great opportunity for spiritual
growth for all of us.
I hope you all have a good week. I love you so much and
hope you all continue to stay safe and healthy.
Love
Josh
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